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Pikmin: Hero Out of the City
Pikmin: Hero Out of the City is a 2019 American animated comedy film based on the NBC animated television series Pikmin. Directed by Chris Meledandri and produced by Meledandri, Pierre Coffin, and Chris Renaud, it is the sequel to the 2007 film, Pikmin: The Movie. It was produced by Illumination and Belisarius Productions, and released by Universal Pictures. The film stars the regular television cast, who returned to reprise their respective roles from the series and the previous film. It focuses on the Pikmin Club facing off against Dark Pikmin, who tries to take over the world. Pikmin: Hero Out of the City was first announced in January 2008. It was originally going to be a direct-to-video film for a 2011 release, but was pushed to an unknown date, but was later cancelled. In May 2016, another Pikmin movie was announced with the regular television cast reprising their roles. Pikmin: Hero Out of the City premiered in Italy on November 24, 2019 and premiered at Angelika Film Center in New York City on November 29, 2019 and was released in the United States on December 6, 2019 by Universal Pictures in 3D. The film received positive reviews from critics and fans, with viewers praising the story, special effects, action sequences, musical score, humor, and performances. Like Pikmin: The Movie, it became a box office hit and grossed $665 million against a $100 million budget. Plot The Pikmin Club decide to go on the journey again when they saw Dark Pikmin kidnapped Molly on TV. Dark Pikmin shows the Pikmin Club around the Flushed Animals headquarters, and when Captain Olimar questions him on Dark Pikmin, Derick informs The Pikmin Club that Dark Pikmin is nothing more than a villain. Left with no villains to pursue, The Pikmin Club can do nothing more than to enjoy the Flushed Animals' lair as tourists. In Dark Pikmin's lair, he calls a bulldog on his cell phone and talks about something evil and bad. He is also eating McDonald's as he plans to destroy Pikminville (like in the first film). Molly breaks free and escapes Dark Pikmin's lair with the help of a one-eyed tall minion named Bill. Meanwhile, The Pikmin Club went to a science laboratory called Lab Lab Technologies, while searching for Dark Pikmin. They met Dr. Reagan Browning and Stanley. Olimar cons them into using their magic to send them all to Pikminville. The spell works, but accidentally causes Red Pikmin and Alex Delmer to switch bodies. They find Dark Pikmin and learn that he plans to kill The Pikmin Club in his lair. Dark Pikmin and the Flushed Animals had captured Red Pikmin and Alex and sent them to prison. Molly and Bill find a motel for the night, while they are escaping from Dark Pikmin's lair. Molly decides to call The Pikmin Club with her iPhone. They are in danger, because Red Pikmin and Alex were in jail. Molly and Bill needs to save The Pikmin Club. Meanwhile in jail, Alex and Red Pikmin tells about Dark Pikmin joining forces. Red Pikmin believes him, but Alex doesn't believe him. Alex plans to escape from prison. When they saw Molly and Bill, where Molly grows frustrated with their lack of initiative. Alex, Red Pikmin, Molly and Bill are being heroes to save The Pikmin Club. Back in Dark Pikmin's lair, he sets a bomb on The Pikmin Club (minus Alex and Red Pikmin) and Dark Pikmin tells them that the bomb is a timer and Dark Pikmin leaves the room. Then, Alex, Red Pikmin, Molly and Bill are here to save them, stop the timer and they escape from Dark Pikmin's liar. When Dark Pikmin got in the room, he saw The Pikmin Club were gone and the timer is stopped. He tells the Flushed Animals to get them. When The Pikmin Club escaped from Dark Pikmin's lair, they saw Dark Pikmin and the Flushed Animals. Just as Dark Pikmin is about to kill The Pikmin Club. The Pikmin Club and the people of Pikminville confront Dark Pikmin. Margo convinces Olimar to give up. More coming soon! Cast Main article: List of Pikmin characters * Chris Renaud as Captain Olimar * Miranda Cosgrove as Margo Gru * Nancy Cartwright as Alex Delmer * Dan Castellaneta as Red Pikmin * Seth Green as Blue Pikmin * Phil Proctor as Yellow Pikmin * Gregg Berger as Dark Pikmin Production Development Following the release of Pikmin: The Movie in 2007, Grey DeLisle, the voice of Margo from the seasons 1-21 of Pikmin, stated that a sequel is unlikely, despite the film's successful box office performance. She said "I think that they are talking about doing that, but I haven't signed up for anything. We just feel like we've told so many stories, and Pikmin exists so well in this short 11-minute form." The sequel was teased in the 2007 film. On January 24, 2008, Meledandri was announced that the sequel to the 2007 film is in development and was slated for an unspecified 2011 release, titled as Pikmin: The Revenge of Dark Olimar. The film would have focused on the Pikmin Club going on a trip and sees his cousin, Leo and he had some cool things in the world and Dark Olimar had a plan to kidnap Olimar's family and destroy the Pikmin Club and Leo. So, The Geo Team and Leo are going to save Olimar's family. Meledandri initially stated "We will be releasing a Pikmin movie at the March of 2011, which will serve to start off or be one of our films that starts off our new animation effort." Originally slated as a direct-to-video film with a 2011 release, but Universal Pictures concluded this film did not count towards the '5 picture' contract when it was released in theaters. In May 2009, it was announced that the film's release date was pushed to a unknown release date. In September 2010, Meledandri confirmed that the sequel is not yet planned. As for doing another movie, Meledandri said, "It's going to be awhile," but added the important statement: "We'll get to it, I'm sure." He did add that there are "no plans at the moment." In 2012, a user on a Pikmin fansite posted a rumor on a forum that Illumination was working on Pikmin: The Movie 2 with a release date for the March of 2015. The rumor started to spread, and in early 2013, Meledandri confirmed that these rumors were true. On May 7, 2016, in an article by the Los Angeles Times, it was first reported that Universal had "another Pikmin picture" in development. On January 4, 2017, Universal officially confirmed the sequel and the release date and it would released on December 6, 2019. Director Meledandri and producer Pierre Coffin had returned. Nancy Cartwright confirmed at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con that he would be reprising his roles as Alex and Daniel. Illumination began working on the sequel in March 2017 with Chris Meledandri and Chris Renaud. Renaud had also expressed hope to reprise his role, and in June 2017, it was confirmed that he would do so. Miranda Cosgrove was later confirmed to be reprising his role as Margo Gru, having signed a contract for Pikmin: Hero Out of the City. In August 2018, it was announced that the sequel will be titled Pikmin: Hero Out of the City. By early September 2018, the first draft of the script was completed. On November 19, 2018, Steve Burke, the NBCUniversal CEO, announced that the film went into production. Casting The regular series main cast members returned to reprise their roles from the series and the previous 2007 film. Animation 2D animation production began in January 2019. 2D traditional animation of the characters and 2D props are created and animated by Chris Meledandri and Pierre Coffin. Traditional animation was directed by Dave Madson, with the rest of the animation by James Baxter, Richard Williams, and Matthew O'Callaghan. 2D traditional animation was also made at Film Roman, A.Film A/S, Mercury Filmworks, Yowza! Animation, Toon Boom Animation, Rough Draft Studios in both Los Angeles, California and Seoul, South Korea, Sunwoo Entertainment in Korea, Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, and Kyoto Animation and Japan. CGI animation production began in February 2019. CGI animation was supervised by Chris Wedge, but the CGI props (outlined in 2D) are created by Reel FX Creative Studios. CGI backgrounds are made by Chris Wedge, but they were outlined and traced with ink and colored with digital paint in 2D. Visual effects The visual effects production for the film began on February 5, 2019, where it is supervised by Chris Wedge. Video editors, compositors, and visual effects artists edited the film just by importing 2D images and 3D animated footage as the backgrounds. They also imported digital hand-drawn animated footage with the vector background as their cels that really needs editing and compositing along with the backgrounds. They even add CGI animated footage with the vector background as their cels, so they composite the backgrounds and the animation cels to make it look like fantasy in the final cut. Adam Katz and Chris Meledandri worked together to animate the Dragon Clones sequences with help from Chris Renaud and Taylor Grodin, using Anime Studio Pro, Adobe Flash, Autodesk Maya, and Adobe After Effects. Post-production The post-production began in April 30, 2019, where it is supervised by Chris Wedge and Chris Meledandri, and directed by Chris Renaud. The sound production was created at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California. Sound editors Tom Myers, Teresa Eckton and Chris Boyes, and sound designer Gary Rydstrom design the sound and then edit it, next sound recorder Chris Meledandri recorded the sound for Gray Rydstrom and Tom Johnson to edit and mix it, then sound re-recording mixers Tom Johnson and Gary Summers re-recorded the sound and mix it. Stereoscopic 3D production was directed, supervised, created, and animated by Chris Wedge. Stereoscopic 3D production was also created and animated by Legend3D. The digital imaging services are at Technicolor Digital Intermediates, where they time the color of the film, and cut the negative clips into the film. The opening titles are created by Blur Studio and Pacific Title, while the end credits are created by Scarlett Letters. Music The music production was supervised, conducted, and composed by series composer and the composer of the previous film, Heitor Pereira. The music production was recorded, mixed, edited, and created at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California and 20th Century Fox's Newman Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California. Release Pikmin: Hero Out of the City had its official wide release in theaters on December 6, 2019. The premiere was held at Angelika Film Center in New York City on November 29, 2019. Chris Renaud, Miranda Cosgrove, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Seth Green, Phil Proctor, Gregg Berger, Chris Meledandri, and Pierre Coffin were among those in attendance. Also in attendance were celebrities who are fans of Pikmin including Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, comedian Jim Gaffigan, Real Housewives of New York star Kristen Taekman, Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi, America's Got Talent host Nick Cannon, former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber, fashion photographer Nigel Barker, Sons of Anarchy's Drea de Matteo, and fitness guru Tracy Anderson. Marketing On March 21, 2019, the film's first trailer was released on iTunes Movie Trailers. The trailer was also attached to Paradoria 2: Enchanted Realm, which went into theaters on March 22, 2019. Two more trailers were produced, with the first being released on June 5, 2019, being attached to The Secret Life of Pets 2, and the second being released on September 25, 2019, attached to Abominable. Thinkway Toys released a line of action figures based on the film, Pop! Vinyl also released a line of vinyl figures, which includes Olimar, Margo, Alex, and Red Pikmin. McDonald's produced 12 toys in their McDonald's happy meals starting on November 29, 2019. Ten books were released for the film: The Junior Novel, Sticker Activity Book, The Movie Storybook, The Revenge of Dark Pikmin!, Coloring & Activity Book, The Funny Joke Book, Meet the Club, The Art of Pikmin: Hero Out of the City, Big Pikmin, Little Pikmin, and Olimar's Paint Box. Pikmin: Hero Out of the City was promoted with airings of the first film on several channels in the weeks of the film's release, including Universal Toons and NBC. Sneak peeks of Pikmin: Hero Out of the City were also revealed, primarily on Universal Toons. Home media Pikmin: Hero Out of the City will be released on February 18, 2020 for digital downloads with a Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and On Demand scheduled for a March 10, 2020 release. Its special features will include a deleted scene, a music video for the song "Let's Save Molly", and three featurettes starring the Pikmin Club. The releases will include three short films, Blasting from the Past, Cops, Robs, and Chase, and Cool Side or Wild Side. Reception Box office As of February 2, 2020, Pikmin: Hero Out of the City grossed $282.9 million in North America, and $382.7 million worldwide, for a total gross of $665.6 million. On December 27, 2019, it surpassed Pikmin: The Movie as the highest-grossing traditional animated film by Illumination. In the United States and Canada, Pikmin: Hero Out of the City was released against Playmobil: The Movie and was projected to gross around $100 million in its opening weekend. It made $19.9 million on its first day, including $10.1 million from Thursday night previews, a record for an animated film in December. It went on to debut to $58.4 million, making it #2 during the weekend behind Roblox: The Movie. It is currently in its second weekend, grossing $58.9 million, making it #2 behind Jumanji: The Next Level. Critical reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 286 reviews, with an average rating of 6.79/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "This is the best Pikmin adventure yet." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 4.5 out of 5 stars, with 71% saying they would definitely recommend it. Accolades Category:Films